[FN-1] Christian Register.
[FN-2] A council of war was called Sept. 8. It was proposed to send a detachment to meet the enemy. When the number was mentioned to Hendrick, he replied—"If they are to fight, they are too few; if they are to be killed, they are too many." When it was proposed to send out the detachment in three parties, Hendrick took three sticks, and said, "Put these together, and you can't break them; take them one by one, and you will do it easily." Hendrick's advice was taken, and victory was the result.—Holmes.
[FN-3] Letter of T. Campbell to Ahyonwaeghs,
President Allen states that the father of Thayendanegea had three sons in the army of Sir William Johnson in the year 1756. Of these Joseph was probably the youngest, since he was but thirteen at the battle of Lake George in 1755. A young warrior truly; but he might well have been there, even at that tender age, since, by all the accounts that have descended to us, he must have been a lad of uncommon enterprise—giving early promise of those eminent qualities, which were developed in the progress of a life of various and important action.
The youthful warrior likewise accompanied Sir William during the Niagara campaign of 1759, and in the brilliant achievements of the Baronet, after the chief command had devolved upon him by the death of General Prideaux, is said to have acquitted himself with distinguished bravery. General Prideaux, commanding the expedition, was killed by the accidental explosion of a cohorn on the 20th of July, soon after commencing the siege; but Sir William prosecuted the plan of his fallen superior with judgment and vigour. On the 24th of July Monsieur D'Aubrey approached the fortress with a strong force, for the purpose of raising the siege. A severe engagement ensued in the open field, which resulted in the triumph of the British and Provincial arms. The action was commenced with great impetuosity by the French, but Sir William was well prepared for their reception. After a spirited contest of half an hour, the French broke, and the fate of the day was decided. The flight of the French was bloody and disastrous for the space of five miles, at which distance D'Aubrey, and most of his officers, were captured. The Indians behaved uncommonly well on this occasion, and Brant was among them. On the following day, so vigorously did the Baronet prosecute his operations, the fort was taken, with all its military supplies and about six hundred prisoners. By this blow the French were cut off from their project of keeping up a line of fortified communications with Louisiana.
The exertions of Sir William Johnson to improve the moral and social condition of his Mohawk neighbours, were not the least of his praiseworthy labours among that brave and chivalrous people. Having aided in the building of churches and locating missionaries among them, at the request of the Rev. Mr. Kirkland and others, he selected numbers of young Mohawks, and caused them to be sent to the "Moor Charity School," established at Lebanon, Connecticut, under the immediate direction of the Rev. Doctor Eleazer Wheelock, afterward President of Dartmouth College, of which, by its transfer, that school became the foundation. Among the youths thus selected was young Thayendanegea, the promising brother of "Miss Molly."
The precise year in which he was thus placed under the charge of Dr. Wheelock cannot now be ascertained. The school itself was opened for the reception of Indian pupils, avowedly as an Indian missionary school, in 1748; the first Indian scholar, Samson Occum, having been received into it five years before.[FN-1] It has been asserted that Joseph was received into the school in July 1761, at which time he must have been nineteen years old, and a memorandum of his preceptor to that effect has been cited. According to Dr. Stewart,[FN-2] however, he was a mere boy when first sent to Lebanon; and it will presently appear that the entry of Dr. Wheelock was most probably incorrect. He was doubtless at the school in that year, and very likely on the point of leaving it; since three years afterward he will be found settled in his own native valley, and engaged in very different pursuits.
[FN-1] The success of the Doctor with him, was a strong inducement for establishing the school. Occum was ordained to the ministry in 1759; and was subsequently located as a missionary among the Oneidas, to which place he was accompanied by Sir William himself. The Indian preacher afterward compiled and published a volume of devotional hymns.
[FN-2] Although, for want of other authorities in regard to the young chief at this period of his life, it is necessary to use that of Dr. Stewart, yet that is evidently not very accurate. For instance, he sends Thayendanegea to Dr. Wheelock at Dartmouth; whereas the school at that place was not opened until 1770, at which period, or only one year thereafter, by the same authority, the chief was living in his own house, with a wife and children, at Canajoharie.